City says bankruptcy judge accepted plan to secure tenants’ belongings at Leland House

City officials told the Detroit City Council on Feb. 24 that a judge in the Leland House bankruptcy proceeding accepted the plan the city presented and that steps are under way to formalize a schedule for removing residents’ belongings.

The update came as Tricia Stein, senior director of strategic initiatives for Mayor Sheffield, and Julie Schneider, director of the Department of Housing and Revitalization, briefed the council while court proceedings were ongoing. “The city in the last 7 days has been working very hard to assess what it will take to temporarily restore power in the building, for the belongings of the residents to be safely and securely removed,” Stein said. Schneider told the council the administration had obtained 21 inventories from tenants and that “14 households have have found permanent housing,” with three more moves in process.

Conrad Mallett, corporation counsel, described developments from bankruptcy court and called the hearing “a step in the right direction.” He said the judge accepted the plan and that debtor’s counsel acknowledged a sale could not proceed until tenants’ belongings were removed, a fact the city plans to use when arguing for payment. “Therefore, we are gonna be arguing to the judge that we need to be first and not last, that we should be able to be paid back for the effort that we made, to return the tenant’s belongings to them,” Mallett said.

What the city is proposing and doing now

Administration officials described two operational pathways being considered in court: temporarily restoring electricity at the Leland House so residents or supervised professional movers can pack and move belongings using elevators and lighting, or moving items while the building remains without power using different procedures and equipment. Schneider said the teams are assessing electrical repairs (transformer replacement or rentals), elevator condition and the logistics and cost of professional movers and rented generators. The city’s proposal discussed with the judge included a two-month storage timeline for items not immediately moved to permanent locations.

Council questions and tenant safeguards

Council members asked detailed questions about how the city would store and catalog residents’ items and how residents could be present during moves. Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero pressed for storage assurances and a minimum of two months’ housing while relocation continues; Stein said storage will be provided and reiterated the two-month timeline presented to the judge. Members emphasized the need for inventories and cataloging so that tenants can reasonably assure themselves that the items returned match what they left behind.

Next steps

Mallett said the city and tenants’ union would formalize the plan and submit it to the bankruptcy court by next Tuesday, with a hearing on the plan scheduled for March 10 for secured creditors. The city will seek to be listed as a creditor in the case so it can recover costs for moving and storage; Stein said corporation counsel intends to add the city to the creditor list. Council members asked administration staff to return with further operational details, including mover selection, inventory procedures and a schedule for tenant access during the retrieval process.

The council did not take a vote on policy changes at the hearing; members said they would continue oversight as the plan is finalized in bankruptcy court and asked the administration to return with additional specifics in the coming weeks.